Essex St Market
Categories: Specialty Food, Grocery [Edit]
Neighborhood: Manhattan/Lower East Side120 Essex St
(between Delancey St & Rivington St)
New York, NY 10002 (212) 388-0449
- Nearest Transit:
Delancey-Essex Sts (F, J, M, Z)
Grand St (B, D)
2nd Ave-Houston St (F, V)
- Hours:
Mon 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. - Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
17 Reviews for Essex St Market
As just a NYC visitor, we were quite impressed with this little neighborhood market. The produce prices seemed quite low ($1.00 for a large bunch of herbs) and several fresh seafood stands and a butcher with a variety of meats. Had a really nice farmers' market feel to the place.
So after surviving the maddening "Sell, SELL, SEEEELLL?!!?!??" war zone that is NY's Chinatown area, my friend and I needed to grab some groceries for a din din party she was attending this eve. And so we decided to hit Essex since the reviews were high and it sounded like a neat place to tool around in.
Once we arrived, I was kinda surprised at how small it was. Guess we were both imagining something bigger and I pictured something more like Grand Central Market in Downtown LA. Regardless though, they had tons of fresh veggies, meat counters, fishies and a cheese shop, which, let's face it, if you have cheese in your establishment, you are good in my book.
After she gathered her goodies for dinner we headed back into the jungle, but for less than $10 and walking out with 3 bags of stuff, ummm, sign me up!
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Going with Kev on this one...great store...for the most part they've got everything you could want, but they can't help you on a Sunday friends.
the prices are a bit steep.
Other than that...great little market
Easy to miss and confusing to navagate, this market was established by LaGuardia back in the day to get the pushcart vendors off the streets of the Lower East Side. I know a couple old schoolers who still call the place "the pushcart". Over the years it changed to reflect the neighborhood: Latino vendors took over from those selling kosher products. Very recently a couple gourmet shops have joined the fray, reflecting the upscale turn the 'hood has taken.
This makes the Essex Street Market very exciting - the balance between new and old is just about perfect. You can buy local artesinal cheeses in one stall then pick up some bacalao and yuca in another. European gourmet products are sold ten paces from Mexican sodas and corn tortillas. The greengrocers are excellent. Jeffrey's butcher shop (which also doubles as an art gallery!) is a MUST when visiting here - he's a third generation butcher, a great character and a source for many things that are hard to find (such as dry-aged beef, mergeuez sausage and exotic meats). His prices are remarkably low for the quality of meat he sells.
If you live in the East Village or Lower East Side this is a great place to shop. If you're a foodie passing through the neighborhood it's well worth the detour to check out the Essex Street Market.
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I love the Lower East Side. (and I am far from being a hipster)
My friend Nancy recommended the market to me, and I went. WOW. It is narrow & crowded. Best to go on a weekday. I love Jeffrey's I bought hangar steak from Jeffrey himself, and he knows his beef.
If I lived on the LES, I'd have done more shopping, but as I only occasionally cat sit there, I kept my purchases to a minimum. There is a large Spanish grocery market, some nice produce, two fish stands, a cheese shop, a fresh pasta shop, a sandwich shop, a barber, a kosher wine shop and more. All in a pretty small space. I love it - a jampacked jewelbox of a city market. Essex Street Market helps to define NYC for me.
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I walked into Essex St Market at random after a good brunch at Essex next door. This place totally reminds me of some of the covered markets my mom used to take me to as a kid in France. You can find everything here from produce to meat and fish to groceries. Everything looks high quality, and the prices do not seem excessive. They also have a cheese shop, an electronics store (very old school), and more unusual or surprising shops such as a taylor ("Mr Smith Expert Taylor, From London Picadilly" says the sign), and a small shop selling religious iconography ("Santa Lucia Religious", "No Pictures Please!")... The place somewhat reminds me of Pike Place Market in Seattle, on a slightly smaller scale, but also with more of an old-time feel. Don't miss it if you are in the area.
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Fun. Crowds way less snarky and bombastic than those back home in SF. Icelandic(-style) yogurt at Saxelby's. I'd definitely be spending a lot of money on the gigantic Florida avocados and cactus if I lived in the neighborhood.
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I like cooking. I like markets. I like supporting little local businesses. So how come I had never heard of this place? A lovely little covered market in the LES. I found it by chance today on the way to Sugar Sweet Sunshine and it's so damn cool. Lots of little, individual shops, each with their speciality (and yes, there's even a tiny, old style barber shop!). The crepes at the crepe place (by the enterance) looked great and are the most reasonably priced ones I've seen yet. And everywhere, you saw people who take great pride in what they do. It gave this place a wonderful energy.
Why only 4 stars then? Well, you know me and my need for organic produce and hormone free meat... That didn't seem to be available here. Despite that, I really really liked this place and if I it was not so far away from where I live, I'd become a regular; if for no other reason becuase I like shopping at places where people get to know their customers.
Definitely worth a trip (especially if you're a fan of the Union Square Greenmarket).
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I try to support the mom and pop shops in this market as often as possible and hope that others will do the same.
Good produce for cheap. 2 seafood spots, always fresh. GOYA products for days if you cook Latin American.
But the best things are
1) Jeffery the butcher. Genuinely nice guy who loves to talk about and really knows his meat.
2) the sandwich guy across from Jeffery that makes killer gourmet-like sandwiches.
3) Saxelby's Cheese. Always nice and helpful. Very happy people.
Haven't tried Shopsin's yet but I will soon.
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All the fun of a latin american covered market, minus the smells and the fly-covered dead animals dangling sadly on the way to being put in your dinner. Given that there are several fancy cheese shops and gourmet bites, it's really like a Mexican food market and the Embarcardeo Farmer's Market in San Francisco had a gorgeous little biracial baby. in addition to the quirky barber shop, there's also, apparently, an art gallery. At least a gaggle of hipsters seemed to be attending an art opening there when I last went.
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The people that sell produce and seafood are really nice, helpful, and fast. There are a wide range of those items + world-class cheese and meats. Prices are affordable and the food is fresh (unlike WholeFoods where only the latter is true).
I find this place especially good for shopping if you're living alone and/or cooking for yourself because you can buy as little or as much of the produce/seafood/meat as you want, which allows purchases of small portions.
Less important reasons I'm not giving it 5 stars: lacks other basic items you might find at bigger grocery stores such as toilet paper, toiletries, even some brand name crackers, etc. Also, a couple times now, people have cut me in line in the check-out...which is both odd and annoying. I don't know if that happens at others places...
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Reminds me of the street markets in Hong Kong, except indoors. It's a wonderful lil' environment that I'm quite fond of. It's mostly groceries and meats, but there's some other seemingly-out-of-place stores including a tailor shop, a repair shop, an art gallery and some sort of record store/flower shop.
There's also a barbershop there. It's just one barber and one seat. I've heard some stories about the guy, most of which are along the lines of "brilliant but crazy". I've never tried it though, I usually don't let crazy people with scissors touch my head.
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My part-time life in NYC is made so much more desirable given that my digs here are a mere round-the-corner from Essex St Market.
To make a parallel comparison to SF, this is like Valencia St produce meets a little Sunset and a little BiRite. That is to say: cheap produce, ripe fruits, delis with fresh meat and seafood, and an abundance of both fresh asian AND also latin ingredients/produce. Like stockpiles of it.
PLUS, plus the wonderful cheese shop at the end selling artisanal goods which I like very much.
But Essex is one step better. The gents can get their hair did at the barber shop here. Yes, not just food, kids. But a barber shop too. Keepin' it real in the LES.
CON: closes at 6p and closed on sundays. Boo! But cheaaaappp and apparently the best offerings for fresh latin produce in manhattan (ask Bobby Flay).
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I used to live right around the corner -- I LOVE this place. The produce is some of the best you can find in the area if not for miles, and the prices are dirt cheap. The guy who makes dirty cakes is unbelievably sweet, and his muffins are delicious, again, and super cheap. Two strikes: there's often a really weird, difficult-to-place smell permeating the whole market. And, the hours are pretty bad for your average 9-7-er. They're open on Saturday, fortunately but not Sunday. Anyway, this place is a gem and I hope it stays open, which I question given the rapid overdevelopment of the neighborhood.
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I wish they stayed open later, usually I can only make it here on my days off, but who needs Dean and Deluca when you can go here and walk out with bags of fresh stuff for under 20 bucks. Its amazing.
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Went to this place on a lark one Friday after reading about it online. Great little indoor market! It reminds me of the kind of places you'll find in old downtowns all over the country. Outside of NYC they're usually the last place where one can get 'market' goods. In NYC not so much, but it's still great.
Love the crepe guy. He's funny and his crepes are wonderful. The little booth selling cheese and chocolates carries some yummy stuff. And the produce here is top-notch. There are several ready-to-eat places inside and a seating area so you can sample some good eats.
I wouldn't make a special trip to come here. I am in this area often enough (for Fried Dumpling) that I'll pop over here as well. If you live or work nearby, definitely make this place a regular stop. If you don't, visit at least once, you may find some surprising culinary treats.
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I came here today for the first time. This is a really nice option in the neighborhood and I think anyone who lives around here is very lucky. I found a lot of produce at excellent prices. The meat and fish vendors had fresh, enticing offerings, and those prices were good as well. The offerings overall tended to lean toward the Latin American, with many kinds of peppers, aloe vera leaves, taro, yucca and jicama side by side with things I could not identify. I bought some lime-shaped little berries I haven't seen before, but the woman who was behind the counter was unable to tell me what they were called or what they tasted like due to our mutual inability to speak the other's language. I don't care. Two bucks for a new food experience is a good thing. There are takeway stalls, Schapiro's Wine is here with wines to taste, there are non-food vendors and a barbershop the size of a toaster oven.
The BEST thing about Essex St Market is that Shopsin's has opened up a little lunch counter at the main entrance. I had some huevos rancheros and look forward to coming back for some of the more traditional Shopsin's favorites.
The worst is the layout. It's very confusing and I walked around for ten minutes trying to find a place to pay for the ripe avocados I found. Some vendors have two stalls across aisles--it's also very busy and full of workers loading and unloading pallets and crates of stuff onto shelves and into bins as you walk by--the aisles are narrow.
Overall, I don't know if I would come here again for no other reason, but since I got a lunch at Shopsin's out of it, and it's around fourteen other places I always mean to get to, it was a 2-stop subway ride well worth it.
UPDATE: The lime things are QUENEPAS!
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